Brabham claims pole at Mosport
David Brabham fended off Simon Pagenaud to put Highcroft Acura on pole for the Mosport Park round of the American Le Mans Series
Buoyed by having ended the De Ferran team's winning streak at Elkhart Lake a fortnight ago, Brabham was dominant for much of prototype qualifying, leading the way by a second after his initial run and remaining on top thereafter.
Pagenaud gradually gained ground, and might have snatched pole away but for a violent ride over a kerb near the end of qualifying. The Frenchman had closed to within 0.074 seconds of Brabham, but had to settle for second.
"I don't think we ever showed what we could really do in practice, so we weren't too worried about that, but we knew it would be close in qualifying," said Brabham. "We were so, so close, and it just shows what a great race we're going to have."
The Dyson Lola-Mazdas took a commanding one-two in LMP2, although they will be split by the LMP1 Intersport Lola on the grid. Marino Franchitti claimed a second straight class pole in third overall, while the championship leading Fernandez Acura only managed third in class and sixth in the outright list.
Rahal Letterman BMW repeated the dominant GT2 form it had shown at Elkhart Lake, with Dirk Muller beating team-mate Joey Hand to class pole by 0.129s.
"It's a perfect result for BMW again," said Muller. "It didn't look so good yesterday [in practice] but we really went deep into the car, worked hard and it gave us a really good car. It's been perfect."
The two works Corvettes will line up behind the BMWs, as the usual Porsche and Ferrari front-runners all ran into problems. Wolf Henzler was third in qualifying for Farnbacher Loles Porsche, but will have to start at the back. He was due to be demoted under series rules as his team-mate Dirk Werner missed today's sessions to race in the Montreal Grand-Am event, and then had his times disallowed for a rear wing infringement anyway.
Although the championship-leading Flying Lizard Porsche of Patrick Long and Jorg Bergmeister only managed fifth on the class grid, it is in far better shape than its title rival Risi Ferrari, which sat out the session after a heavy practice crash for Jaime Melo.
Pos Cl Drivers Car Time 1. P1 Brabham/Sharp Acura ARX 02a 1m05.323s 2. P1 de Ferran/Pagenaud Acura ARX 02a 1m05.397s 3. P2 Leitzinger/Franchitti Lola B09 86 Mazda 1m06.379s 4. P1 Field/Field Lola B06/10 1m06.764s 5. P2 Dyson/Smith Lola B09 86 Mazda 1m06.853s 6. P2 Fernandez/Diaz Acura ARX-01B 1m06.944s 7. P1 Burgess/McMurry Lola B06/10 1m10.613s 8. P2 van der Steur/Pecorari Radical SR9 1m11.391s 9. GT2 Mueller/Milner BMW E92 M3 1m17.528s 10. GT2 Hand/Auberlen BMW E92 M3 1m17.657s 11. GT2 Beretta/Gavin Corvette C6.R 1m17.959s 12. GT2 Magnussen/O'Connell Corvette C6.R 1m18.309s 13. GT2 Bergmeister/Long Porsche 911 RSR 1m18.361s 14. GT2 Farnbacher/James Panoz Esperante 1m18.778s 15. GT2 Murry/Robertson/Robertson Doran Ford GT-R 1m19.208s 16. GT2 Feinberg/Hall Dodge Viper 1m19.746s 17. GT2 Melo/Kaffer Ferrari 430 18. GT2 Law/van Overbeek Porsche 911 RSR 1m19.475s 19. GT2 Henzler/Werner Porsche 911 RSR
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